~5th Limestone, 207~
Surface Military Fort
Reggosmer the apprentice was hard at work. He wasn't the best carver, but he wasn't the worst. But sometimes he wished he could do more.
"Reggosmer, what're you looking at?" He looked around, to see where the female voice was coming from. "Oh, it's just you, Meng." "That's Akrulatzul to you, Reggosmer. You should stop looking up and start looking at those bones, they won't carve themselves." Meng stands up, holding a completed capybara bone bolt. "See, that's what you can do if you pay attention." "That's nice. Say, have you ever thought of what it'd be like to FIRE these instead of just making them?" Meng facepalms. "Vetek and Cerol!* You're thinking about that again! You know you can't be in the military! You're just a bone carver, like the rest of us! What, do you think that they'll let you, an inexperienced newbie in after so many elites died in the demon siege, Vetek rest their souls!" "Well, it doesn't hurt to dream. Perhaps if I trained-" "Where, and with what? All of the best equipment was destroyed when the siege started, and the stuff that's intact is blocked off. You will never get there. Get back to work and quit hogging up the workshop." Meng walks away in a huff. Reggosmer lays his head down in defeat.
"Don't listen to her." Reggosmer looks up, and is startled to see the pile of bones he was working on arranged to look like a dwarf. “Who are you, phantom?” The skeleton makes a rattling noise, somewhat like a laugh. “I am the ghost of Goukaryuujin, the Mad Genius. I have come because you seem like a willing vessel.” "If you are his ghost, doesn't that mean that all the heroes died? What chance will I have?" "I shall guide you, and help you become stronger. Malle, Velard, and other reincarnated legends shall be there to help you." Reggosmer stands up. "Then I accept you, phantom. Lead me to glory and death."
*Vetek is a god related to war and fortresses that Akrulatzul believes in.
Cerol is a god related to volcanoes and mountains that she also believes in.